Microsoft on Tuesday issued a seventh developer-oriented platform preview for Internet Explorer (IE) 9, its next web browser, the second such preview since a public beta release in September. The IE 9 platform previews aren't particularly interesting to end users, but each has offered impressive underlying enhancements, and this one is perhaps the most impressive yet: According to Microsoft, changes to IE 9's JavaScript engine result in this browser now being the fastest on Earth.

Before anyone breaks out the champagne, however, Microsoft is also warning users that the JavaScript performance tests so beloved by its competitors are, in fact, quite misleading—a charge I've made myself in the past. Microsoft's normal focus on real-world browser performance is, I think, a far more compelling story.

"We think people should evaluate browser performance with real-world scenarios," Microsoft Vice President Dean Hachamovitch wrote in a blog post announcing the new preview. "Real-world scenarios involve using all the subsystems in the browser together rather than looking at single subsystems in isolation. Using a narrow slice of features to assess the big picture makes as little sense here as using the Acid test to understand standards compliance." (He's right about the Acid test, as well, which was written as much to discredit Microsoft as it was to prove any form of HTML 5 compliance; that said, IE 9 also scores impressively on this test.)

OK, but in this latest platform-preview guise, it turns out that IE 9 does, in fact, score higher on the industry's "SunSpider" JavaScript test than any other browser, including those browsers—Firefox, Chrome, and Safari—whose makers seem particularly fixated on such numbers. In fact, Mozilla is already disputing IE 9's latest results, though the complaint seems somewhat specious.

No matter. As Microsoft is finally publicly stating, these tests are all completely bogus and not indicative of real-world performance. Fortunately, the software giant has put a lot of effort into promoting this aspect of the browser, as well, and while the company has nicely kicked up a hornet's nest with this overdue commentary on the state of baloney in the browser market, the really interesting bit will come when the final version of IE 9 arrives and can compete with then-shipping browsers from other makers.

If you're interested in checking out the latest IE 9 platform preview, and viewing Microsoft's new performance tests for yourself, please do visit the IE 9 Test Drive website.

Discuss this Article 10

off course the tests are bogus but MS should simply take the time to score high if not highest to have all the FF and chrome fanboys something to cry about. All those bloggers are scrambling to find ways now to discredit sunspider just like they tried to discredit the W3C's html 5 compliance. but the truth is all these guys are full of BS and just follow an agenda of anti-ms bashing like mindless trolls. let them be, and let MS keep spanking them on their beloved tests.

The one thing that has always severly annoyed me about IE since they started doing multiple tabs ala Firefox or Opera is that I have never figured out how to keep multiple tabs open without having to answser multiple nag prompts which in the end, again, refuse to allow me to simply open multiple tabs, exit IE, then return with those same Tabs open the way I left them.

It's almost as if Microsoft goes out of their way to do it the wrong way on purpose.

From the Ars article it does not sound like MS is intentionally cheating to beat the sunspider test. Ars seems to think the dead code optimization that MS made is fair and reasonable, and applies to much more than "gaming" a specific sunspider test.

@1: Acid2 wasn't written to "discredit" Microsoft, but it was written to highlight the things Microsoft didn't support and "challenge" Microsoft to fix those things: http://news.cnet.com/The-Acid2-challenge-to-Microsoft/2010-1032_3-5618723.html

"He's right about the Acid test as well, which was written as much to discredit Microsoft as it was to prove any form of HTML 5 compliance;"

Please show where this is true. Otherwise this is just an outright lie and a made up fact. No browser initially passed any of the ACID tests, Many were constantly updated to achieve compliance. Just because MS choose to ignore that test with IE6, IE7 & IE8, does not make that test any worse than any other.

"As Microsoft is finally publicly stating, these tests are all completely bogus and not indicative of real world performance. "

This is the very true.

MS has done well with IE9 previews so far and will hopefully push other Browsers to enhance their performance as well.

Acid Test has always been worthless anyway. No even Firefox can manage to pass it.

I feel IE9 is a decent product. It certainly shows that Microsoft are still capable of excellence, even though it takes Google or Mozilla to light a fire under their asses.

It would be nice to see IE return to it's cross platform days (Remember when you could have netscape and IE on your MAC?). It's absolutely superior in every way to Safari (The worst browser on the market IMO).

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